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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/22779748">Hermit’s Crawl</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/Darkrealmist/pseuds/Darkrealmist'>Darkrealmist</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>The House of the Dead Poetry [18]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>The House of the Dead (Video Games)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Action/Adventure, Battle, Blood, Canon - Video Game, Caves, Character Study, Chases, Free Verse, Gen, Genetics, Gothic, Guns, Horror, Mad Science, Mutants, Poetry, Prose Poem, Science Fiction, Spiders, Spies &amp; Secret Agents, Survival Horror, Tarot, Wordcount: 100-1.000, Wordcount: 100-500, Wordcount: Under 10.000, Zombies</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-02-26</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-02-26</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-04-28 15:46:50</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>300</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/22779748</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/Darkrealmist/pseuds/Darkrealmist</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>A poem based on the pursuit of the Hermit, set during The House of the Dead.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>The House of the Dead Poetry [18]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/1200067</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Hermit’s Crawl</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Hermit’s Crawl</p><p>Author’s Note: Enjoy the poem and R&amp;R.</p><p>Disclaimer: I do not own anything related to or of the House of the Dead series.</p><p>Summary:</p><p>A poem based on the pursuit of the Hermit, set during <em>The House of the Dead</em>.</p>
<hr/><p>This is it! Can truth prevail to ennoble evil compliment? Behind the lava bridge, a cupola of life.<br/>
Walled by cultivation dome’s techno-greenery. Bestride the trapdoor leading to the limestone cavern.<br/>
Worm-tongued spider sheathed in chitinous ivory, six-eyed, tailed imposture a carnivore to itself.<br/>
Without chelicerae, a mutation unique. Down that octagonal hole, it jumps.<br/>
Grafted its spindly stilts are the donated skin grafts of the mad scientist’s dormant masterpiece.<br/>
Follow Rogan and G, squashing back daddy’s long-legs’ two-toed scratch.<br/>
Curien’s third research center lies beyond the alternating green and red fallout shelter-thick bows.</p><p>Bleeds human blood and upchucks cerebral palsy pain. Plasticized whiplash, again and again.<br/>
Climbs deeper to duck the agents’ pitiless shots. Through the cave’s recesses, a hunter defamed.<br/>
Upturned, the knitter-anchorite wriggles thoracic muscles unseen.<br/>
Claws to the eight corners, it squirts fluid web packs outraged.</p><p>Exhausted its supply of natural grenades, the tunneller runs foul and afoul.<br/>
An improvident, suicidal charge, head helmed in adamantine grapnels.<br/>
Flashbangs go off as the metatarsi unseal to attack. Fleshier scraps blasted off while its guard it retracts.<br/>
The recluse is pushed to the pit base. Smothered in cartridges till its trochanters buckle.<br/>
It screams.<br/>
Lifeless husk hitting the corrugated metal.<br/>
Squinches not into a ball to die, yet flat against the tube, like a roadside carcass.</p><p>It was six thousand eight hundred three, once stomped underfoot.</p><p>I can’t prove my mettle, for I’d rather flee. What is it to show how good you are, but to wait and see?</p><p>So disconsolately dead, the lonely spider.</p>
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